17 Blue Cheese Recipes Even Haters Will Love

For grilled squash with a uniformly crisp texture, chef Vivian Howard of Chef & the Farmer in North Carolina cuts her squash lengthwise into quarters and then removes the seedy interior. This gorgeous summer squash salad is tossed with a bright, lemony dressing.

This rosemary flatbread is both fluffy and crusty, and the blue cheese — which goes from crumbly to creamy in the oven — melts in your mouth.

Melissa Clark’s tangy twist on chicken quesadillas will leave you wondering how you’ve never tried this dish with blue cheese.

Mimi Thorisson’s mesclun salad is sweetened with figs, apples, and grapes yet still maintains acidic and spicy flavors from the apple cider vinegar and whole-grain mustard.

This summer, switch up your potato salad and try out this blue cheese and bacon version, where the potatoes are grilled long enough to develop beautiful char marks.

Leave it to Andrew Zimmern to cook up the ultimate football season (or any season, if you ask us) comfort food: fried shrimp dunked in blue cheese dressing.

Chef Nicolaus Balla’s beet and blue cheese salad, made with scallions, herbs, and red wine, is bright and sweet.

This simple focaccia comes together in just four steps.

Good, light potato gnocchi can take a really lush sauce such as this one from Emilia-Romagna, which is creamy and fragrant with stewed radicchio, seared pancetta, crunchy pine nuts and a mild Gorgonzola dolce, also called dolcelatte.

Resist the urge to pile on any of the usual toppings—lettuce, tomato, ketchup—on these burgers. "The port is your condiment," explains Adam Fleischman.

Chicago chef Stephanie Izard amps up broccoli with a punchy vinaigrette, creamy blue cheese dressing and an irresistibly crunchy, butter-toasted Rice Krispies topping. 

Two high-impact ingredients—funky Stilton cheese and pickled sweet or spicy peppers—come together to form the ultimate one-bite snack. Pickled peppers, like spicy pepperoncini and mild Peppadew, are packed with enough flavor to stand up against strong cheeses. You can use most blue cheeses here, including Gorgonzola and Roquefort.

Buttery, cheesy homemade croutons star in this salad from Ann Taylor Pittman.

At her modern chophouse, Jar, in Los Angeles, 2002 BNC Suzanne Tracht’s menu changes with the seasons. To celebrate summer, she says, “this juicy, sweet combo of Gorgonzola and beef alongside fresh heirloom tomatoes is how I kick off the outdoor months.” 

“In each bite, you get a little nuttiness, a lot of chewiness, some juicy bits, a pleasant amount of bitterness, and some creamy richness,” Ann Taylor Pittman writes of this salad.

In their book Wine Food, sommelier Dana Frank and recipe developer Andrea Slonecker pair funky, bright wines with flavorful, vegetable-forward dishes. In this vegetarian version of classic French onion soup, blue cheese and oloroso sherry bring new layers of flavor and depth. Notes of toasted nuts and fruit compote in the sherry pair well with caramelized onions, and its briny acidity cuts through the richness of the cheese.

On the river, Chef Andrae Bopp wraps whole sweet Walla Walla onions in foil and tosses them into the coals of the campfire to roast and caramelize; here we’ve adapted his recipe for your home grill. Don’t skip the zippy honey-vinegar drizzle—it coaxes out even more flavor from the sweet onions and balances the blue cheese.